Fundraiser planned for woman paralyzed near site of husband's own accident that led to paralysis

Csala Beers needed to buy milk before a snowstorm, which is one of those things people laugh about until they find themselves stranded at home without any milk as the blizzard howls.

She hopped in the car and headed for Crystal Springs Dairy Farm in Schnecksville, 3 miles away, expecting to return in short order to spend the rest of her Sunday — Feb. 1 — snugly cocooned indoors with her husband.

Less than a mile from their home on North Whitehall Township's Rising Sun Road, which had been covered by blowing snow, a cat crossed in front of Csala. She hit the brakes, the car spun and rolled and Csala — who always wears a seat belt but hadn't that day — was ejected and landed on the pavement with a broken back.

"I never did lose consciousness," Csala — pronounced chella — said Tuesday, speaking by phone from Good Shepherd Rehabilitation in Allentown, where she is undergoing intensive physical therapy and learning how to use a wheelchair. She is paralyzed from the waist down, and doctors have said it's unlikely she'll regain the use of her legs given the severity of her spinal cord injury.

It was the same thing doctors told her husband, Dan, after he crashed his motorcycle into a soybean field and fractured three vertebrae.

That was on Sept. 2, 2002, on Rising Sun Road — three-tenths of a mile from the site of Csala's accident.

Dan, now 37, was paralyzed below the rib cage and has been in a wheelchair since.

"I told her the best thing to do is cry," he said, summing up the advice he has given his wife in the past two weeks as she struggles to acclimate to her new reality. "Let the emotions out, because it doesn't help holding it in. I know I did. I laid in bed and cried at night."

Csala, 30, said she knows her husband's experience will be a blessing to her in the weeks and months to come, not only on the practical level — how to maneuver around a room, say, or climb in and out of a bathtub or car — but in the delicate psychological adjustment to life in a chair.

"Most people this happens to, they have no insight into anything and are very alone in it," she said. "I have someone there who can really help me through it."

Dan and Csala met at a Fourth of July party in 2005. Csala was in town from her native Ohio visiting her sister, Rebecca Buckner.

"I kind of saw him, did a double take and walked up to him and said, 'Who are you?' " Csala remembered. "He had a smile on his face that kind of drew me. We talked for a long time and hit it off and it sparked."

Csala was studying to become a teacher. She decided to move to Pennsylvania because obtaining certification here would allow her to teach kindergarten through sixth grade, rather than third grade as in Ohio.

She moved in with Rebecca, and her relationship with Dan blossomed. Early on, he said, she asked him to take her out four-wheeling on a farm field.

This chick's awesome, he thought.

"He kept pursuing her," Buckner said. "He was relentless. Eventually she just fell in love with him. She didn't really even see the wheelchair."

They had a long courtship and engagement and married July 6, 2013. Csala worked as a long-term substitute, but recently took a job at Knopf Automotive in Allentown because a full-time teaching post has eluded her. Dan works seasonally at Buckman's Ski Shop in Whitehall Township.

In looking for a place to live, they had found a house that had been configured for its previous owner, a double amputee. It had wheelchair ramps in place, wide doorways and other accommodations.

It was on Rising Sun Road, which put Dan off at first.

"I wasn't too keen on knowing a half-mile up the road is where I broke my back," he said. "But I thought, it's been years; I don't dwell on it anymore."

The house is surrounded by farm fields, which have been preserved from development so no townhouses or warehouses will spring up to spoil the views. It will need work, though, to accommodate two wheelchairs. The counters must be lowered, the washer and dryer moved upstairs, the bathroom expanded.

Dan and Csala also need an accessible car. Csala had borrowed Dan's on the day of the accident and it was totaled.

Buckner has started a page on GoFundMe to help with expenses. It is nearly halfway to the $100,000 goal. And Thursday, P.J. Whelihan's Pub & Restaurant at the Walbert, 1658 Hausman Road in South Whitehall Township, will hold a fundraiser that will include prize giveaways. Part of the day's receipts will go to Csala and Dan.

Csala said this response from the community has surprised and touched her.

"There was a little boy at my niece's school who said, 'This is all the money I have in my piggy bank. Give it to your aunt,' " she said. "From the doctors to the therapists to the nurses, everybody's just been very helpful, whether I just need fresh water or need to be repositioned or even if I just need someone to talk to or to cry to.

"Until this happened, I didn't realize how many people I really had in my life."